


Tuesday Night is Game Night

by lunarshores (damichan)



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Family, Family Feels, Games, Gen, Poker, Scrabble, Street Racing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-18 15:55:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9392384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/damichan/pseuds/lunarshores
Summary: Jason was fine with the uneasy alliance he'd settled into with the Bats when he was in town. The less he saw of them the better, as far as he was concerned.That was before Steph decided to meddle.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by the wonderful [ImperialMint](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperialMint)! Other members of the Bats will be appearing one by one.

It was just after four in the morning when Jason heard the slight scratching noise from his fire escape. He was instantly alert, one hand on the gun that was next to his bed, despite having been previously just on the comfortable edge between sleep and wakefulness. He groaned, wondering if the possibility of an attack was worth leaving the comfy warmth of his bed. 

The noise happened again, and Jason snapped to full awareness brow wrinkling. It almost sounded as if someone were  _ pacing _ . Someone trained to silence so the only noise they made was the turning of heel. Curiosity won out over the need to stay in bed, and Jason slipped from the warm covers into the frigid air of the apartment, with a silent groan.

He pulled on an old hoodie that was tossed on the floor and, shivering, made his way to the living room window. The gun was a comforting weight in his hand, but Jason wasn’t too worried. The sound heralded annoyance and inconvenience, but it was unlikely whoever was out there was here to kill him. Assassins tended not to pace. He’d know.

Whatever he was expecting, it surely wasn’t Batgirl sitting slumped on the ice cold metal of his rusted fire escape. She’d given up on pacing and had pulled her knees to her chest. Jason frowned. He was in a truce with the Bats, but they weren’t exactly on visiting terms. Dick, he might have expected—he still hadn’t given up on family togetherness—but he’d only met Stephanie a handful of times, and that was strictly work related.

It wasn’t any of his business, and he told himself he should just ignore the shivering Bat intruding on his space. But he was already disarming the security on the window and unlocking it before the thought had finished itself.

It was from curiosity, not concern.

Stephanie startled, scrambling to her feet and getting into a defensive posture as he slid the window open. Jason looked her over for injuries, but there was nothing he could see, and he arched a brow.

“So do you make a habit of roosting outside other people’s apartments in the snow, or am I just special?” he asked, leaning against the sill. 

Stephanie relaxed the slightest bit at his easy posture. “Oh, you’re special alright,” she muttered and slumped again. “I suppose I was in the neighborhood is a bit cliche, right?”

“I couldn’t go home yet,” she said, and Jason lost the retort on his lips. They stared at each other in silence. He recognized the dejected slump of her shoulder, the weariness oozing from her. A Bad night.

“So you came  _ here _ ?”

Her lips quirked up into a self-deprecating smile. “I’ve never been known for wise decisions.” There was a bitterness to her tone that Jason was also familiar with. Bruce had a way of bringing that out in anyone he deemed imperfect. 

He ignored the little voice in the back of his head that said this was a bad idea and moved back from the window, sweeping an arm out in invitation. Stephanie’s eyes flicked from his face to his arm, hesitation written in the way she held herself. She must have decided she’d come this far, for she shrugged and clambered through the window with an elegance that spoke of Dick’s contributions to the Bat-style. 

Jason wasn’t sure whether he was amused at her nerves, appreciative, or something else. He closed the window behind her but didn’t lock it or set the alarm, silently allowing her an escape route.

She stayed silent, drawing back her cowl, one eye on him as she inspected his shitty safehouse. This one was the closest he got to home, and it housed most of his books, shelving lining the main room that had the kitchen and living room, such as it was.

Jason turned on the space heaters and tossed Stephanie a blanket as he crossed to the kitchen to put the kettle on. “I think I’m out of hot chocolate,” he said. “Is tea fine?”

She nodded and settled on the worn couch, perched on the edge with the blanket firmly wrapped around her. Jason made the tea, picking a jasmine blend. Silence hung over them as the tea steeped and the room gradually warmed. Jason cursed himself for getting up to investigate the noise. What did you even say to a not-exactly-defined member of your estranged family when they turned up at four in the morning?

“These space heaters are great,” she said. “We had a shitty one when I was a kid. I don’t think it actually put out any heat, but the red glow did make you feel a little bit warmer somehow.”

Jason smiled ruefully, as he brought the tea over and sat on the other side of the couch. “Yeah, we had one like that.”

Silence fell again, and Jason sipped at his too hot tea to mask his unease.

“Why’d you come?” he finally asked, and Stephanie looked up from her tea, which she’d been staring into like it held the answers to the mysteries of the universe. 

“Couldn’t sleep, yet not after tonight.” Jason would definitely be hacking into the Bat computer system tomorrow to see what had been so bad to have her end up with him. “Didn’t want to talk about it, didn’t want to be alone.”

“Well, we’re definitely not talking about it,” Jason said, already regretting leaving the gun in the kitchen, and Steph laughed, tired but still warm and contagious.

“Suits me.” She cocked her head at him, and he bit back a comment on bird behavior. “You don’t seem as insane as they said.”

“You don’t seem as smart as your file suggests.”

She gaped at him. “My file says I’m smart?!”

Jason’s lips twitched. “It was Babs’s file.”

“Oh, that makes sense. Bruce would never say something so nice.”

“Let’s not talk about him either.”

“For sure.” Steph sighed exaggeratedly. “But at this rate we’re going to run out of things to talk about.”

Jason waited a beat. “How about this weather, huh?”

She glared at him with such pure affront, Jason couldn’t help but snicker. “You’re the one who came to me, Blondie. You can’t complain about my conversation.”

She sniffed and took a sip of her tea. For the first time Jason felt a pang that he hadn’t gotten the chance to get to know the baffling number of misfits Bruce had swept under his wing since Jason’s death. If he hadn’t died, would they have been friends instead of enemies? Family instead of begrudging allies?

Familiar anger churned in his gut, at Bruce, at the Joker, at the world. At himself. His eyes shut, and he clenched his fists.

“How about a game?” Steph asked, and Jason opened his eyes to stare at her in bafflement. She brandished a deck of cards she must have brought with her, an understanding smile on her face that softened his anger even if it got his back up.

He took a deep breath. “I can do that. What’s your game?”

It took them more than ten minutes to agree on a variation of poker, and really, Jason should have been fleeing at that point, or kicking her out or something, but she was just too enthusiastic. He could almost see the weight that had been on her letting up little by little, and he found himself making more tea.

“What are the stakes?” he asked, and Stephanie made a face. 

“Unlike you with your ill-gotten gains and the rest of the clan with their excess of funds, I’m just a broke college student,” she said, and Jason’s lips twitched.

“Peanuts or pennies?” he asked, and she tilted her head in serious consideration. 

“Peanuts, but you’ll have to front me.”

“I can probably manage that.” While he was in the kitchen, Jason also grabbed some cheese and crackers because she probably hadn’t eaten since she’d gotten off patrol, plus broke college student. They were always supposed to be hungry, right? He knew what that was like even if he’d never gotten to the college part.

“Yes! You’re the best, Jay!” Steph dove into the food, either not noticing how the nickname no one had used in years made Jason freeze or pretending to out of politeness. She grinned wickedly at him, and shuffled the cards as he shook out of his stupor and divvied up the peanuts. Jason found himself settling back into the couch as she dealt. 

“Prepare to lose all your peanuts,” she said, smiling down at her cards. 

Despite copious amounts of cheating (on both sides Jason was sure, though he had yet to catch Steph at it), they were almost exactly even two hours later when Steph yawned. The actual amount of peanuts on Jason’s rickety coffee table was quartered from accidental snacking.

“Next time we’re using pennies,” he said in disgust. 

“Then we’ll know how much you lost by,” Steph said without looking up from her cards. “We wouldn’t want to bruise your fragile male ego.”

“ _ I _ lost—” Jason cut himself off, realizing there was now no way to win that argument. He sighed. “Whatever.”

Dingy light was starting to filter through the leaden clouds, revealing the snow had decided to stick. It already looked dirty.

Steph followed his gaze out the window and some of the light that had returned to her face while cheating at poker vanished. 

“The couch is comfortable,” he said before he could think better of it, and she beamed at him.

“Are you going to take me out for waffles before class too?” He glared, at least half because he now knew when she had class, and which professor was an ass because you needed to have distractions to cheat, so conversation had been a must.

“Don’t push your luck. I’m sure my sanity will return by then.” Jason stacked the dishes in the sink to deal with sometime later and set the alarm, and Steph snuggled into the couch after sending a text.

He fell asleep to the soft sounds of another person sleeping the next room over and knew he’d be waking up in time to buy Steph her damn waffles.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Jason supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised when Stephanie showed up the next Tuesday, this time armed with buttons in lieu of the peanuts. Or the Tuesday after that. On the fourth Tuesday, he’d given up any pretenses and had given her overrides to the security on his favorite safe house. She thankfully never commented on how he always happened to be there on Tuesday nights. When he’d picked up an extra blanket for her (eggplant) the next time he was out shopping, he realized this might be a Thing. 

Jason checked the time on his phone again before absently straightening the snacks he’d laid out on the coffee table (he’d definitely gone overboard this time). It still said it was just past five. She’d never been this late before.

Of course, it wasn’t like this was a planned thing. Maybe she just had better things to do tonight. Maybe she had a test. Or a paper. Jason didn’t remember her mentioning anything big this week, but well, why would she tell him? 

Jason suddenly found himself wishing he’d bothered to hack into the Bat comms tonight. Maybe she was in trouble. He knew she had patrol tonight because he still made a point to have the roster memorized even if he wasn’t on it. Still she had all the others. Stephanie would be fine.

Jason stood abruptly. He should put the snacks away. 

The phone rang and he nearly took out the coffee table, snacks and all, lunging to get it from where he’d left it on the couch.

“Hello?”

“Jason,” Barbara said, and Jason blinked. He hadn’t heard from her since... before. His tongue tangled, and he suddenly didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how to respond to the warmth he could hear in her tone despite the professionalism she always used over the lines. “Sorry to bother you, I know we’re keeping our distance, but I lost contact with Steph and Tim fifteen minutes ago, and everyone is out of the city or otherwise occupied.”

Jason was already putting on his domino and reaching for his weapons. “I thought something might be wrong when she was so late.”

Babs would have known about Tuesdays of course, whether Stephanie had told her or not, but she didn’t comment. “I’ll get you an updated comm tomorrow, but you’re connected with the old one in your helmet,” was all she said, and Jason didn’t bother to refuse. She knew how often he hacked in already.

“Where am I headed?” he asked instead of thanking her. 

“Warehouse in Black Mask’s territory. I’ve sent the coordinates to your bike’s GPS”

Jason gave an exaggerated sigh as he swung a leg over his bike and started it up. “It’s always a warehouse, isn’t it?”

To his surprise, Barbara actually laughed, just a bit, and Jason let himself smile underneath the helmet and sped off into the night.

***

Tim swore softly to himself, after the third failure to break out of the bonds Scarecrow’s henchmen had them in. They’d been tied back to back against a support post thoroughly enough they couldn’t even take deep breaths. He almost had reached her utility belt this time.

“Would you stop that already,” Steph snapped, and TIm sighed. He still couldn’t believe they’d fallen for a trap. The shipment hadn’t exactly been advertized, but apparently these idiots had learned the best way to get their attention.

“Excuse me for not wanting to wait to be fear gassed,” Tim said, and Steph slumped against him. 

“I don’t think we’ll be here that long,” she said. “Do you know what time it is?”

“Almost six?” Tim asked, craning his head around to look at her despite the awkward angle. “And you know Dick and Damian are caught up with Killer Croc.”

“It’s  _ Tuesday _ .”

“Okaaaay... And that means the henchmen are going to miraculously let us go?” 

“Don’t be ridiculous, Boyfriend Wonder,” Steph said, and Tim rolled his eyes behind his mask. At least the henchmen hadn’t been tried to take those.

Gun shots suddenly echoed from the other side of the warehouse, and Steph perked up. “See right on time!” The goons that had been watching Tim try to wiggle out of their damn convoluted knots, traded a concerned glance and moved to the front door.

Tim renewed stretching for a batarang. Dick and the Brat must be here. He was  _ not _ enduring the ridicule from Damian for being caught by  _ henchmen _ , even if he had to dislocate a shoulder or two.

The unmistakable sounds of people getting their asses handed to them sounded right behind him, and Steph leaned forward, making it awfully difficult to breathe. Tim twisted, trying to get a look. There was a familiar whirring noise and a knife sunk into the post after slicing through the ropes that bound them. He frowned. Nightwing and Robin didn’t carry knives. Well, okay, Nightwing didn’t carry knives and the Brat wouldn’t let them down without mocking judiciously first.

He pulled away from the post, untangling himself from the ropes, and he froze when he saw Jason casually taking out the last goon with a punch to the solar plexus, in full Red Hood get-up..

Tim drew a batarang, going to step in front of Steph, but she was already gone. He blinked as she flung herself at Jason and opened his mouth to protest---he  _ had _ just rescued them; it seemed a bit ungrateful to just attack like that---but lost the words when she glomped him, and Jason  _ caught  _  her like he was expecting it, spinning her around while she laughed up at him. Tim stared, batarang still in hand and mouth agape.

“Have I told you you’re my favorite brother? Because you are.” 

Jason snorted, and he looked up at Tim, batarang hanging limply from his hand. “When did you decide we’re siblings?”

“Just now. But I’m going to be persistent about it, so you should give in now, and make it easier on yourself.” Steph detached herself from Jason and grinned at him, then looked back at Tim. “Oops, I broke him.”

“Hello, Replacement,” Jason said, and Tim relaxed a bit at his tone---not the harsh, bitter tone he’d remembered---and let himself hope cautiously. 

“Hood.” Tim nodded.

“Sorry, I was late,” Steph said.

“No problem, you were clearly all tied up,” Jason said and ducked out of the way of Steph’s swat. “Are we done here?” He nudged a thug with his toe, then looked at Tim and Steph for confirmation.

“We just need to make sure the police secure the shipment,” Tim said, and Jason nodded. Tim dug his spare comm out of his belt, and Steph did the same---the ones that the thugs had taken were probably toast even if they could find them---but Jason shook his head.

“O already called them,” Jason said, and Tim blinked. Babs was in contact with him too? Steph linked her arms through each of their elbows and tugged them to the exit.

“To the roof!”

Sirens blared as they settled into the shadows of a nearby roof, and it took a moment for Tim to find his voice.

“So what happens Tuesdays?”

Jason and Steph traded a look, and Jason shrugged, looking... embarrassed? Tim watched in amusement as Steph brightened, a familiar grin on her face.

“Well, it’s still Tuesday. You can come find out.” Tim looked between the two of them and thought of the board meeting he had in... seven hours or so.

“Sure.”

The police managed not to screw up, and in 15 minutes, they separated to collect their bikes.

“Shall we race?” Steph asked over the comms, and Tim rolled his eyes.

“A destination might help,” Tim said, disabling the security on his bike and getting on.

“I’ll send you the coordinates,” Babs said helpfully. Tim shot down the empty street, gunning it while he could. The coordinates lit up his screen. Right by one of Jason’s safe houses. He let himself hope a little more.

“You should come sometime too, O,” Jason said, his tone too casual to be actually casual, and there was a stunned silence. Tim didn’t know what he’d just invited Babs to, but his breath caught anyway.

When Babs finally spoke, her voice was thick. “I’d like that.”

“Well, if the  _ Replacement _ is getting invited... It feels like a lifetime since I last saw you, O. ” 

Tim sputtered, almost taking a turn too wide, but Babs actually laughed.

“Hey! Red is great,” Steph said. Horns blared in the background, but he couldn’t tell if it was Steph or Jason’s comm. Jason swore. Tim sped up. “And you have to admit---” She broke off to whoop, and Tim’s lips twitched. “---it was getting a bit boring with just the two of us.”

An engine roared behind him, and Tim glanced in his mirror. Jason was right on his tail, and Tim swerved, forcing him back.

“I never agreed to this in the first place,” Jason said, and Steph laughed. Jason was gaining on him, and Tim was grinning despite himself. There was nothing like a good race or game of rooftop tag. He wondered if Jason had gotten to race with Babs or Dick. He hadn’t seen it when he was following them, but it could have happened.

Jason overtook him on the corner, and Tim veered into an alley, dodging trash cans, and managing to come back on the road in front of Jason by a hair, just as they hit the block the coordinates were on.

The sound of another motor made Tim lose focus enough Jason pulled up until their handlebars were almost even, but he didn’t see Steph anywhere. They were coming up to the alley Babs’s coordinates said was the finish line, and Tim was just sliding into a turn when Steph whooped again and a shadow passed over them. He and Jason both looked up, losing speed, as Steph’s motorcycle soared over their heads as she dropped from the roof.

She managed a neat 180, and skidded to a halt, grinning as Tim and Jason frantically braked to avoid hitting both her and each other.

They managed to stop, and Babs was laughing.

“Batgirls alway win,” she said, and Jason groaned.

“You always did cheat.” Jason pressed his hand to the battered old shed, and a security pad appeared. He caught Tim’s raised brow, and clicked his helmet off to show a grin. “Harper helped me out.”

Tim nodded, and Jason disabled the security and the doors slid open far less creakily that he would have expected from the exterior. They drove their bikes into a decent sized garage and parked, and Jason led them out onto the street to grapple up to a fire escape to Jason’s safe house.

To his shock Steph disabled the security on the window instead of Jason, and Tim wasn’t sure if he should be jealous or concerned. Jason had been decent to work with lately, though. They all piled in and Steph and Jason took off their masks, Tim following a beat behind. It wasn’t much warmer than the outside, and Jason wandered around turning on space heaters. There was a large amount of food on the coffee table alread.

“I’m going to change,” Steph said, and Jason nodded, as if it were expected she had clothes here. Tim supposed it probably was. Jason flicked on the tea kettle, then started shedding his uniform, dropping it all on a handy chair Tim would bet solely lived for that purpose and pulled on a hoodie from the kitchen floor. 

“You wanna borrow some clothes?” he asked, biting his lip and not meeting Tim’s eyes, and Tim had to shake himself out of the unreality of the situation. 

“Uh, sure?” 

A pair of sweats and a shirt hit him in the face, and Steph grinned at him. She was now dressed in Wonder Woman pyjamas. He wondered vaguely if she knew Diana was Jason’s favorite Justice League member. He stripped down to last layer of his suit then pulled on the clothes, lips quirking when he saw it was a Green Lantern shirt.

“It’s freezing in here,” he said as Jason brought over the tea, setting it next to the snacks. 

“Spoiled,” both Jason and Steph scoffed in unison, then grinned at each other. Tim gingerly took a seat on the couch as Steph bounced out into the back rooms again. Jason raised a brow but didn’t ask.

“So what do you do on Tuesday nights?” Tim asked, mostly to break the awkward silence.

Jason’s mouth was open to answer when Steph bounded back in, brandishing Scrabble. “It’s Game Night!” 

Tim blinked.

“I don’t have Scrabble,” Jason said frowning. “I don’t have any games.”

Steph scoffed, and set the game in the only free spot left on the table. “I brought them over last time, just in case. Cards were getting boring.”

“Game Night,” Tim said slowly.

“It was  _ not _ my idea,” Jason said, running a hand through his hair and slumping back into the couch, and Steph set up the game board and handed out tiles.

Tim took a cookie. He needed a cookie.

“This gives me flashbacks,” he said, and Jason looked at him commiseratingly.

“I know, right?” They shuddered in unison, and Steph looked between them.

“Dick?”

“Dick,” Jason said, and Tim nodded tiredly.

“I’m surprised he hasn’t tried it with Damian,” Steph said. There was silence as they all considered that for a moment, then they all took a cookie and turned to their letter tiles.

Steph stopped muttering to herself after a moment and grinned evilly. Jason and Tim traded looks. “Now, who goes first?”

***

Steph hid her amusement as Jason and Tim relaxed slowly over the course of the game. By the time they were reaching the end of the letters, neck-and-neck (they’d blown by her early on, but she would get her revenge), they were trading trash talk more easily than Steph had seen Tim with any of his insane family.

Tim played his final tile, clinching his win, and grinned at Jason. 

“Zax is not a word!”

“Of course it is,” Tim said. “It’s in the Scrabble dictionary.”

“What’s it mean then?”

“It’s a tool used in roofing.” Tim took the last cookie and crossed his arms. “I let you get by with ‘za’ in the first place.”

“It’s legitimate slang for pizza.” Jason did a double take at Tim. “Wait, did you  _ plan _ this final move.”

Tim just smiled.

Steph tuned them out and checked the time, groaning. “He plans everything,” she said. “But it’s almost 7.”

They both looked at her and then looked out the window. “Shit,” Jason said. “At least your class isn’t until later.”

“The board meeting it at one,” Tim said. He couldn’t quite manage to hold back a yawn. Steph and Jason both glared at him when they yawned too.

“Leaving us just enough time to crash a few hours and still fit in the traditional Wednesday Waffles,” Steph said.

“She has you wrapped around her finger, doesn’t she?” Tim asked, and Steph knew that smirk. They’d managed full-on amusement. Jason just sighed.

“Jay’s accepted his fate,” Steph said.

“I should have just gone back to sleep,” Jason said, and Steph grinned at him.

“You know you love me.” Steph settled her new, pretty blanket better around her shoulders and got up from the floor to snuggle into the world’s most comfortable armchair. She had detailed plans to steal it from Jason, but if Tim were joining game night, then they’d need more places to sleep.

“Wait, you stay here?” Tim asked, and Steph rolled her eyes at him.

“Of course. It’s tradition. Game night, sleepovers, and waffles the next day.”

Jason rubbed the back of his neck as he stood up. “You’re um, welcome to stay too. If you want.” He didn’t meet Tim’s eyes, and Steph held back a squeal. They didn’t need to know how adorable they were with their tentative bonding. Steph remembered before Jason had come back, how obsessed Tim had been. This would be good for them.

“Yeah,” Tim said. “I’d like that.”

Settling down to sleep was a bit more awkward than before, but eventually, they were all tucked up, and Steph listened until their breathing evened out and she was sure they were asleep or at least pretending very well and smiled, pulling out her phone.

She couldn’t wait to tell Babs how successful the mission had been. It had been genius to jam the comms.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What game do you think Babs should bring next time? 
> 
> Feel free to drop by [my tumblr](http://lunarshores.tumblr.com)!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! You can find me at [my tumblr](http://lunarshores.tumblr.com) if you'd like to say hi!


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